This is a typology developed by the sociologist Gilbert Rozman, as reported in the book The Confucian World Observed, p. 39. This course focuses mainly on Rozman's categories 2 and 3 "Reform Confucianism" and "Confucianism of the Social elites." Rozman's categories are particularly useful in distinguishing this from "Mass Confucianism," (min-Confucianism) which individuals growing up in Asia today more often associate with Confucianism.
Gilbert Rozman... [described] a research project he has been engaged in during the past three years with a number of faculty and graduate students.... The objective of the project has been to identify a systematic way of approach in the topic of cultural identity... In the process the group became very aware of the extent to which the term Confucianism encompasses many different meanings... An attempt was made to distinguish types of Confucianism...
1. Imperial Confucianism, which centered on ideology and ritual supportive of the emperor's rights and the delegated authority of those who exercised power on his behalf. Those who emphasize this aspect to the exclusion of others tend to see Confucianism as inherently conservative and supportive of government authority.
2. Reform Confucianism, which provided something of a counterbalance to his conservatism. For example, in Japan on three occasions in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century there was an effort to reform society drawing on Confucian inspiration, with a special emphasis on corruption -- the very theme the students in Beijing are focusing on at present [in the occupation of Tiananmen Square in 1998], and in the tradition of the May Fourth Movement [student protests May 4, 1919].
3. Confucianism of social elites not holding high government posts, which included... in China, members of the scholar-official class and, in Japan, the Samurai. The latter should not be viewed merely as servants of the state, for they also had independence of thought.
4. Merchant house Confucianism... which is a set of ideas about business organization. As Sam Yamashita has ready indicated, this was one of the major methods by which Confucian elements of discourse spread in the Meiji period, especially in the early nineteenth century.
5. Mass Confucianism, which was practiced by the general population, including vast numbers of peasants.
Imperial Confucianism was more dominant in China, but was less emphasized in Japan during the Tokugawa period [1603-1868. This is a period when Japan was ruled not by an Emperor by a Shogun (warlord)]. However, it remained in the background and was invoked in the 1860's and again in the 1880's and 1890's [This was the period of the Meiji reform. On the surface this was a "restoration" of the Japanese Emperor, but it was engineered and run by educated government administrators wanting to modernize Japan, but under the inspiration of may Confucian political ideals.]
In China it was so closely associated with the existing order and so much identified with Confucianism a whole that its repudiation left relatively little room for other elements of Confucianism. [This was especially true of the last, Ch'ing/Qing Dynasty, in which a (non-Chinese) Manchu Emperor ruled in a very authoritarian manner and forced Confucian administrators to become mere tools carrying out his policies, much against traditional Confucian ideals.]
On the other hand, Rozman views reform Confucianism as having been much weaker in [authoritarian] Ch
=ing China than in Tokugawa Japan. It had ready been invoked as a force there and could be re-invoked as the modern era began. [Many see the Tokugawa period as a period of "the taming of the Samurai" -- when Samurai warriors were gradually turned into Confucian style government administrators.]Elite Confucianism in Japan was transformed to involve bushido (the Way of the samurai); it combined a number of elements of a separate tradition, associated in part with Zen practices. Rozman emphasized his belief that understanding the differences in elite Confucianism between the two countries is important to understanding their different paths of development.
Merchant house Confucianism involved such values as gratitude, propriety, humility, understanding of hierarchy, and the practice of ancestor veneration. In Japan the separate chonin bunka (townspeople culture) helped provide a more solid foundation to elements of merchant house Confucianism. This can be seen in the Tokugawa era as well as the twentieth century (perhaps less so in the earl Meiji era [1868-1945]).